The Biggest Losers Of 2012

Stock markets can go up as well as down, as 2012 has proved. But
there are plenty of City folk who can conspire to produce
eye-watering losses for themselves even against the positive
backdrop of a rising market. The year has been notable for some
collapsing fortunes and reputations. Investments have gone wrong,
dodgy practices have been exposed and bankers have paid for
costly demergers on the domestic, if not professional, front. So
here is our list – not nearly definitive or scientific – of who
lost their shirts and how in 2012.

Nat Rothschild

As was gloriously revealed in the libel courts, Nat Rothschild
will pay good money for a thrashing. That line has proved to be
true in a corporate sense too. The financier, who in January
regaled Mr Justice Tugendhat with the colourful tale of being
"beaten by a 25-year-old banya keeper man … before jumping into
ice cold water" at a sauna, started the year with a fortune of
£1bn, according to this year's Sunday Times Rich List. That may
need revising.

Shares in his mining creation Bumi have slumped by almost 70%
this year, while those in electricals group Volex (where he's a
big investor) have lost by 75%. The value of Rothschild's oil
group, Genel, has also slipped by 6%, leaving predictions that
Nat will become the "richest Rothschild of them all" looking
somewhat bullish.

Mark Zuckerberg

When Facebook
floated in May, the shares of 28-year-old founder Mark
Zuckerberg were worth just south of $19bn (£11.75bn). He is
now $5bn less rich after the market told him he'd overcharged by
28%. The slump wasn't a big surprise as it's still not clear to
anybody born before 1990 how the company will generate enough
profits to justify its hefty valuation.

There has also always been an army of willing sellers of the
shares within the company itself.

Or as Zuckerberg candidly put it: "We're going public for our
employees and our investors. We made a commitment to them when we
gave them equity that we'd work hard to make it worth a lot and
make it liquid, and this IPO is fulfilling our commitment." They
sold.

Roger Jenkins

Last year the former Barclays
banker was supposed to be worth £300m. No longer.

That figure halved in 2012 after his marriage to Diana – which
had reached its "natural end" a couple of years ago – reportedly
ended in divorce.

Jenkins now seems to be consoling himself in the arms of the
model Elle Macpherson, while his 37-year-old socialite former
wife, who arrived penniless in Britain in 1993, instantly became
one of Britain's richest women.

That seems like a reasonable reward for introducing her husband
to Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, a Qatari prince and
manager of the nation's sovereign wealth fund who invested £8bn
in Barclays. Arguably, it saved the bank from a state bailout.

Carlos Slim

He may possess a name that would suit some Vegas card sharp, but
Carlos
Slim is actually the world's richest man.

He's just less rich than he was, after a year in which two
European investments have slumped in value by about €2bn
(£1.62bn).

America Móvil, Latin America's largest telecoms operator, which
is controlled by Slim and his family, made its first significant
investments in Europe this summer, by acquiring about a quarter
of Holland's KPN and Telekom Austria for a combined €4bn.

The value of the 23% stake in Telekom Austria has fallen about
42% and the 28% in KPN by about 46%, according to estimates by
the asset management group, Bernstein.

Meanwhile in August, Bloomberg
estimated Slim's worth had slumped by $1.7bn. The poor lamb is
now only worth north of $70bn.

Stephen Marks

Amazingly, after the clothing label French Connection first came
up with its FCUK brand, customers found the gag amusing enough to
keep buying the T-shirts for several years.

The shares soared on the back of this marketing triumph until,
suddenly, the joke was on the investors.

The acronym went out of fashion and the new ranges never seemed
to sell quite as well without a replacement gimmick.

That has been particularly painful for founder Stephen Marks, who
owns 42% of the shares. The value of those slumped again last
year – this time by 30% – and made Marks £4.8m poorer. For him,
it's no laughing matter.

Peter Cummings

Peter Cummings, the former HBOS banker once considered a genius
for lending billions of pounds to people who couldn't pay it
back, found another way to lose money in 2012.

He got himself a lifetime ban from the Financial Services
Authority for his role in the banking crisis and was £500,000
less rich too, after the regulator clobbered him with a fine.

Cummings remains the only former HBOS banker to be penalised by
the City regulator as a result of the near-collapse of the bank
which was rescued by Lloyds in September 2008.

The 57-year old Scottish banker believes he's been singled out.
He may have a point.

David Einhorn and Greenlight Capital

Back in 2009, David
Einhorn and his Greenlight
Capital hedge fund celebrated being £5.8m richer than they
might have been after the American fund manager dumped all his
shares in Punch Taverns just before the pub group announced a
£375m fundraising that knocked 30% off the stock.

It was not a lucky punt. Einhorn had been told by a corporate
broker acting on behalf of Punch Taverns what the company was
planning. And moments after that conversation, he flogged his
entire Punch holding.

In January, the Financial Services Authority decided this was
just not the way things should be done. The regulator fined
Einhorn and his company, making them £7.2m less rich.

The ENRC "trio"

ENRC shareholders had a terrible 2011 – and the company followed
up that performance with another shocker in 2012. The City
fretted over the outcome of two investigations – one into
allegations of corruption in ENRC's business in Kazakhstan and
another into the group's African operations – which are
interesting the Serious Fraud Office and contributed to the
shares more than halving over the year.

That drop mainly affected the three founders – aka "the trio" –
of Alexander Machkevitch, Patokh Chodiev and Alijan Ibragimov,
who collectively own about 35% of the shares. Between them, they
are now £1.6bn less rich.

Stephen Hester

Stephen
Hester, the boss of mostly state-owned Royal Bank of
Scotland, is fond of presenting himself as an everyman ("I'm blue
Labour, or pink Tory" he is fond of saying). So perhaps it's not
too surprising to discover how pliable he can become after a
touch of public opprobrium. Hester responded to public outrage
about his bonus in January by (after initial resistance)
renouncing it. The sacrifice made him £1m less rich.

Ivan Glasenberg (again)

Ivan Glasenberg, left, who the City widely regards as a world
class trader, is becoming a regular in this annual list. He's the
largest individual shareholder in commodity trading group
Glencore, so his wealth is rather exposed to one stock. Sadly for
Ivan, that stock keeps falling – losing 12% this year and marking
down his 15% stake by more than £500m.